Learning to swim

Avery was sooooo excited when I told her she was having swim lessons today! She was practically jumping in the water once we got there. We had to wait on our coach and decided to take a photo op of her new swim suit before she got in.

We are taking lessons at Lifetime and I have to say that we had a great time and I think she is really going to learn something this year. We have taken classes in the past where they mostly played, but I think that this class is actually going to teach her some skills.

Her coach was really fun and all the kids just thought he was hilarious! Here is a picture of Avery attempting to float on her back. All of the kids in her class were better swimmers than Avery, so I think this is going to challenge her in a good way.

We'll update in a few weeks to let you know the progress. Hopefully she will be swimming under water for a few seconds in the near future.

To the Strawberry Patch!!

Today we visited Gnismer Farms in Arlington to hand pick home grown strawberries! Yummm! We joined other moms from MECPTA and their kiddos for the adventure! Gnismer Farms offer all sorts of fruits and veggies to pick throughout the year, but today was strawberries only!

Avery enjoyed catching bugs more than picking the strawberries!

Here are some of the kids from MECPTA

We picked a modest 2.5 pounds of strawberries, but they were so delicioius that we ate most of them by the time we got home! Dirt and all! Yum!

An Indoor Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Hope everybody enjoyed their day with family or friends! We had an especially busy weekend, but what a great weekend it was!

On Saturday, we headed to The Stockyards in Fort Worth for a Texas Sized Easter Egg Hunt. Of course, we got there too late for all the official activities, but we had plenty to see anyway.

waiting on the cattle run
Our favorites were the horse stalls where the kids fed the horses and ran through the barn like crazy animals themselves. We also liked the herding of the cattle down Main St., all the live bands, and mommy liked the shopping.

watching the cattle

(McSteamy) Denver & Bowen checking out the horses

Kids loving the barn

Yes, that's Denver above with Bowen. He has decided to grow a beard....I like it though! He kinda looks like McSteamy!

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was a great day. We started out by going to church and then we headed over to Nana & Grandad's house for lunch and Easter Egg Hunting. Unfortunately, it was a yucky, rainy day, so we had to have an indoor egg hunt. I don't think the kids minded...they loved finding all the eggs and eating cup cakes.

Avery, Bowen & Keira

Keira trying to give Bowen a smooch!

Hope you had a blessed Easter as well! If you want to see ALL the pictures from Easter Weekend click here

Avery's 3rd Birthday

Great Wolf Lodge

Well, what a week it was! Avery may have very well had the best birthday any 3 year old could have asked for! It was seriously a week long celebration!

First, Mimi took Avery and her bestest (girl) friend Hailey to Great Wolf Lodge to spend the night and play in the in-door water park. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and literally played all day in the water park. It was great for Avery's age and she really loved it! Her favorite was the lazy river - which was more like a wavy river. We just stuck a life jacket on her and she floated around that thing for hours (pretending to save the mermaids).

That evening we ate dinner at Great Wolf Lodge and she had her first round of candles and singing waiters (round 1). Later that night we slept in the coolest room that has a "Kids Cabin" built right in the room. She and Hailey slept in their own little cabin with bunk beds, a flat-screen tv, and little critters painted all over the walls.

Oh, and before we went to bed, the girls got to go down in their PJ's for a live show and story time in the hotel lobby. The animals and trees literally came to life to sing and dance, which the girls really enjoyed. Here is a picture of the little tree house that was also in the lobby. (see the girls running crazily in a circle).

The next morning we adults were dragging a bit, but we finally made it back to the water park. The girls still had lots of energy and swam and swam all morning until we headed home. I really was impressed with the facilities - everything was really clean and it truly wasn't too crowded. This was probably due to going during the week. However, I think that Avery will be able to enjoy it even more at age 4 since there were a few rides that she wasn't tall enough to do.

That afternoon we headed home and stopped by the Rain Forest Cafe for lunch and the girls really loved this! Perfect for kids and Avery had more candles and singing waiters (round 2).

Birthday Party

The time finally came for Avery's true birthday party on Sunday afternoon. She had been looking forward to this for weeks having already insisted and picked out her Princess birthday cake. We had her party at The Jumping Party facilities in Fort Worth. This is truly her favorite place to go...she loves bouncing in the bounce houses and sliding down the massive slides. And I love taking her there as it surely guarantees an afternoon nap!

We invited all her friends at preschool and other kids that belong to our friends. They had a great time bouncing and sliding for 1 1/2 hours.

Avery's presents

Avery had such a great party. There was gift opening, sliding, pizza, cake, candles (round 3) and friends! Thanks to all who attended and to those of you who couldn't attend, I hope you enjoy reading this post and seeing all the pictures.

My first post!

Well, here I am...posting my first blog dialogue.....what in the world am I going to talk about and why do I think that anybody wants to hear what I have to say? This all started when I first started reading the blog about that little boy named Stellan (pic on right side of page). I was reading blogs about couponing and somehow I ended up on Stellan's story....it is just so sad and he looks like my little Bowen. Anyways, I will be praying for him and if you haven't read his story, grab a tissue box and read.

Well, I guess I'm knee deep in it now, and who knows, maybe its a fun way to update friends and family with photos of the kids and to let everybody see my ongoing projects (more to come on this).

Blogging is really hard! I think I've already been at it for like 3 hours and am just now starting to navigate my way around comfortably. I finally have my background set up the way I want. Truthfully, I am way too O.C.D. for blogging - I try to make it too perfect and we all know there is no such thing as perfect.

Anyways, I'm already out of things to say, but here's to my first post and to many more to come!